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For those not familiar with the novels of George R. Stewart, Storm is the well-researched story of a California storm that slams into and across the central transect of the state in one dynamic week. It was a ground-breaking work, the first fictional work to make the ecosystem a protagonist in human affairs. Still in print, Stormcontinues to get good reviews from its readers.

Cover of the Modern Library Edition

Stewart, who taught English at UC Berkeley, was always deeply interested in geography and its related sciences. So he used the input from his colleagues in those fields to bring accuracy to the book.

Stewart also did field research – sometimes dangerous research – to get the feeling of a storm. He traveled with the California Division of Highways (now Caltrans), worked with those who maintained the P.G.&E. dams in the Sierra, and even rode with the California Highway Patrol over the central Sierra Nevada highways.

His wife, Ted, remembered that on one trip he rode over 7000 foot + Donner Pass, during a major snowstorm, on the cowcatcher at the front of a steam locomotive. When she picked him up on the other side he was nearly frozen.

Stewart, in writing the book, slowly realized it was a novel about the role of the ecosystem in human affairs. To make the point, he named few of the human characters. But he named his storm.

Wildly popular, the novel was distributed to soldiers in World War II. Those who returned to become meteorologists were so taken with the book, and the idea of naming storms, that they adopted the naming practice, now widespread. One of the readers, Vic Moitoret, went on to become Chief Areologist (Meteorologist) for the U. S. Navy — later founding the George R. Stewart fan club, and becoming a fine amateur fine quality printer. (Moitoret survived two aircraft carrier sinkings, never losing a small book which included a list of his favorite books – first listed was Storm.)

And the name? Maria. Pronounced, Stewart was careful to point out, “in the old-fashioned way” with a long i: Mar eye ah. That, by the way is why the wind is called Maria.

The book is now considered a California Legacy Book. It’s still a good read, as the reviews reveal.

Stewart’s name has endured, too. It was used for a 2005 storm, a 2011 storm. Now it’s the name of a storm heading toward Florida: This storm is not in the Central Sierra Nevada – although we’re getting a big solstice storm here, which includes tornado warnings. But in the Caribbean, it’s as powerful as Stewart’s Maria, with Category Five winds.

This would be a good time to give Storm a read; and give a nod of thanks to George R. Stewart, “The Man Who Named The Storms.”

Born in New York City, and speaking with a distinct accent, Alan Kaplan brought a distinctive character to his work as a Naturalist for the East Bay Regional Parks. Based in Tilden Regional Park, in the hills behind Berkeley, Alan interpreted the history and natural history of the area through guided hikes, school programs, and the preparation of exhibits for many years, until his retirement. He’s also provided leadership in organizations that provide education in interpretation for his fellow naturalists in the west, through his work in the old Western Interpreters Association. (Note that “interpreter” in the park sense refers to what used to be called “naturalists” – those people in distinctive uniforms who interpret the advanced concepts of a park’s cultural and natural history into common English for visitors.)

That’s where I first met him. There, he played a foundational role in the publication of the George R. Stewart biography. He was the First Publisher of my writings about GRS.

In 1986, the WIA conference was held in Yosemite National Park. I presented a talk, “George R. Stewart: An Author for Interpreters.” As the the title implies, Stewart’s histories and ecological novels are excellent resources for those interpreting the natural or human history of the West.

I was pleasantly surprised when Alan, then President of WIA, encouraged conference attendees to attend the GRS session. And even more pleasantly surprised when the session was crammed full of enthusiastic naturalists and interpreters.

As the session ended, Alan, who was in the audience, rose to second my comments about Stewart’s value for interpreters. He emphasized the power of Stewart’s writing by quoting the closing lines of FIRE. Doing so, he even educated me – I knew FIREwell, but had never given the ecological power of its closing such careful attention. (FIRE was so well-researched and written that the U.S. Forest Service used it in their training programs for summer fire lookouts.)

Alan asked for an article for the WIA Newsletter, Bayways. Entitled “The Man Who Named The Wind,” the article was a written summary of the GRS talk. It was the first publication, for a large audience, of material which would eventually expand into the McFarland biography.

Alan also interpreted the work of George R. Stewart to Tilden Regional Park visitors. For many years, on a weekend close to the day in August when Stewart died, Alan led a “George R. Stewart Memorial Hike” to the summit of one of Tilden’s peak . The hike focused on Stewart’s work, especially his remarkable NAMES ON THE LAND. The book is not a dictionary of American place names, but a history which explains in beautiful prose WHY we named places a certain way in a certain era. As Wallace Stegner once wrote about NAMES (here paraphrased) “No one ever wrote a book like this before; no one has written one since.” Visitors who joined Alan’s hike learned about Stewart, his work, and especially his unique work about place-naming. (NAMES ON THE LAND has just been translated into Chinese for the millions of citizens of that country who are enamored of American culture.)

Once, friends and I joined Alan on the hike: George and Theodosia’s son Jack, Jack’s wife Joyce, and former high school student Denise L. Barney and her husband Barney hiked along; afterward we crammed into the back of the tiny Chinook microcamper with Alan to share some good wine and crackers (Alan abstained!)

As the GRS biography was written, and published, Alan joined public events which described GRS and my work. Once, to my chagrin, he was at a talk at the Bancroft Library and I did not notice him so did not introduce him; fortunately, when he came up afterward to say hello I was able to give him a well-deserved gift – a first edition of STORM, autographed by GRS, with a rare misprint on one page.

He also shared our GRS dinner at the beautiful, historic UC Berkeley Faculty Club, sitting next to me, and we were able to talk about shared GRS experiences.

To sum up – Alan Kaplan, Naturalist, played a major role in the work which led to the eventual publication of THE LIFE AND TRUTH OF GEORGE R. STEWART. He also inspired me to take a second, deeper look at Stewart’s books, especially FIRE. Stewart, and the GRS biography owe him much. I am deeply grateful for his encouragement.

George R. Stewart was an “inventor” of the Whole Earth Vision – the recent realization that Earth, in an immense universe, is one small, blue, life-bearing place, only fully understood if it’s explored from two perspectives – that of the ecologist, who studies it from ground level, and that of the astronaut, who examines Earth from space.

Stewart used that vision for the first time in Ordeal By Hunger. He begins the book by asking the reader to “imagine yourself poised in space” in what we would now call LEO or Low Earth Orbit, about 200 miles up. In the book’s Foreword he describes northern Nevada precisely, as photos taken from the International Space Station reveal. (Stewart used the techniques of fiction to make the history dramatic and engaging, and did that so well that some readers still think they’re reading a novel. They’re not; they’re reading history.)

The book then moves into the ecologist’s point of view, ground level, as Stewart makes the case that the Donner Party’s tragedy was the result of the party’s ignorance of the ecosystems it passed through. At the book’s end, he writes, “It should be obvious…I consider the land a character in the work.” The land, of course, is the ecosystem.

NASA Strategic Planner Jesco von Puttkamer suggested we are now living in the “New Enlightenment of Spaceflight.” That Enlightenment began with Stewart’s Whole Earth Vision. The New Enlightenment expanded its reach exponentially with the first photos of the Whole Earth from space, most dramatically “Earthrise” from Apollo 8. von Puttkamer’s slogan for the age, borrowed by Star Trek for the series’ first movie, is

Space: The Human Adventure is Just Beginning

Today, we know Stewart’s pioneering Whole Earth vision from both perspectives – of the land, and from LEO. We have joined von Puttkamer’s New Enlightenment of Spaceflight, and gained Stewart’s Whole Earth vision and have a greater understanding of and love for our home planet.

For nearly a decade, I was a traveling Educator for NASA. Most school work, in those long-ago days on the NASA Education highway, was with 4-6 grades. Sometimes, though, we’d work with High school students. That age group can be a challenge. A former high school teacher myself, I had a few appropriate activities to use. One was to work them through The Drake Equation. (See also this BBC Interactive Page.) Another, a head-down bedrest exercise that let the chosen briefly experience and document the fluid shift caused by microgravity. The third was to read from George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides.

At Galena High School in Reno to work with Science Teacher Richard Brong’s students, I included the Earth Abides reading with other activities. After the session ended, Richard asked, “Do you know Philip Aaberg’s music?”

“Aaberg’s written and recorded a composition called ‘Earth Abides.'”

It was the beginning of a quest: To find a copy of the music; then, if possible, to find Philip Aaberg.

Then, with some detective work on the web, I found the phone number for Sweetgrass Music, Phil and Patty Aaberg’s music (etc) business. Calling the number connected me with Patty Aaberg; Patty connected me with Phil.

Phil is an exceptional musician. In high school he regularly traveled 600 miles by train from Chester, Montana, to Spokane, Washington, (and 600 miles back) to study with a Julliard teacher who’d moved west to find students like Phil. He received a full scholarship to Harvard. When he found himself depressed by the Vietnam war, unable to create music, his brother sent him a copy of Stewart’s Earth Abides. The book, and others by Stewart, encouraged and inspired him, and he could once again create. The composition was his honoring of Stewart and Stewart’s great novel.

The friendship with Phil eventually led to his participation in a George R. Stewart Symposium at the annual CONTACT conference. There, Phil spoke of Stewart’s profound influence; then played several compositions, including Earth Abides.

Now – thanks to sponsors Bob Lyon, Junlin Pan, Ross and Charleen Bogert, Alan Kaplan, Joyce Stewart, and Doug Raybeck – the sheet music for Aaberg’s Earth Abides has been published. It’s for sale at a reasonable price, here:

If you play the piano or know someone who does, this is worth buying.

Even if you don’t play, buy it – the cover is worth framing.

If Stewart’s iconic novel becomes a successful mini-series, this will be a collector’s item.

Stewart fans owe Michael Ward a great deal. He volunteered to create and post the George R. Stewart web pages, at his own expense. The pages contain an excellent repository of information and links about Stewart and his work. This blog reports the news about GRS; Mike’s pages are the best overview of basic information for Stewart.

We owe publication of the Stewart biography to Mike, as well. Science fiction author G.D. Nordley, a fellow participant in the annual CONTACT conference, suggested I contact Mike and his fellow organizers of the speculative fiction conference, Potlatch, to offer to participate on a panel about their Book of Honor that year, I jumped at the chance: the book was Stewart’s Earth Abides. Mike, the panel organizer Tom Becker, and the others, graciously welcomed me to the program, and the panel.

One of the vendors there recommended submitting my book proposal to McFarland for consideration. Agent Sally van Haitsma did so, and McFarland agreed to publish the book.

So it can be said that Mike Ward, his associates, G.D. Nordley, and Sally van Haitsma brought the GRS biography to life.

Now Mike keeps the GRS pages alive for our common interest. Many of those who visit this weblog are directed here by Mike’s website, so he does a fine job of spreading the word about Stewart.

Mike has his own websites, and projects, and they are interesting and in at least one case wonderful research resources.

He has a site, Hidden Knowledge, for the works of several authors, among those books the great adventure stories of Rafael Sabatini. Sabatini knew how to write a good tale. Like C.S. Forester, Sabatini’s books are about the sea in the 18th century. But Sabatini wrote pirate stories. Like Forester, Sabatini’s work was filmed – Captain Blood and and The Sea-Hawk wonderful swashbucklers starring Errol Flynn, are probably the best-known.

(Please note that the links to buy the books no longer work. So simply browse the site to learn more about Sabatini’s books, and the others Mike lists.)

Another of Mike’s sites is devoted to the art of magazine covers. MagazineArt.org has more than 15,000 examples of cover art and magazine ads on the site – a virtual Smithsonian for the wonderful art of those printed wonders that enriched the lives of Americans and others before television or film or radio – and after, as well.

He has sites devoted to historic travels and travelers. TravelHistory.org, and another for the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The many articles on the travel history page make for fascinating reading, allowing you to be an armchair traveler in the days of the web.

His pages link to other sites, about Burton Holmes, Rafael Sabatini, and George R. Stewart.

Thanks again to Mike Ward, whose GRS pages were the first major web presence for those of us who are fans of Stewart’s work. Mike’s GRS pages bring others to this weblog.